SAYING I DO IN 2022!

In April 2019 my friend Luci and I ended up saying yes, last minute, to attending a friend's birthday party. The theme was beer olympics, in which teams of four come together to partake in silly drinking games to earn points and win the gold. The first moment Sam and I actually met was when we realized were on the same team and needed to strategize who would be doing what "games". At the end of the night, Sam had found out it was also Luci's birthday and suggested we go get ice cream to celebrate her (he knew the way to my heart early with an ice cream suggestion). We went and he ended up paying for my ice cream. By the next day we had plans to get drinks at Columbia Craft and the following Saturday I had asked Sam if he wanted to come over and watch a movie with me, Luci, and the guy Luci was seeing at the time. I am unsure if I was that tired from working that day or just that comfortable with Sam, but I ended just wearing an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants and up falling asleep in the middle of the movie! I guess it allowed Sam to gain a glimpse into many of the nights we have now and to come. This comfort level only increased and before I knew it, I had invited him to come on vacation with my extended family just two months into dating. He fit right in, which in my family can be hard to do. This made me fall for him even more. We have had many laughs and many tears over the last several years, but Sam's ability to grow and learn how to best care for me is what truly made me fall in love with him. By the way, we did win the gold that night, but I definitely took away the best prize.

Rewind to April 20th around 11am on probably the 7th hole of golf for my friends birthday, my beer olympic team for later that day was in shambles. I am a very competitive person so this was stressful for me not knowing who I was going to be on a team with to win the 'olympic golds'. I was just told Luci and Katie were going to show up and tag team as partners for our 4th person. I knew of Katie before then, as we both worked at UofSC, but had never met her until we were at beer olympics. Turns out she is also very competitive so we did well. I had driven to our friends house and offered to drive her and Luci home because it was on the way. *it wasn't really* Looking back this was the first sign I liked Katie. Later that night we had messaged one another and had a date set up the next Tuesday at our favorite brewery. While on our first date, she began to talk about the enneagram and how I am for sure a 2 and I agreed for a long time and fought her when she tried to change my enneagram to an 8. (Classic 8 move I have come to find out). Anyways I had such a great time and felt so comfortable talking with Katie which for me it can be hard. Soon after we started dating, Katie met my mom and grandma at the local Mama Mia play and Katie thought my mom didn't like her. Suzy and I tried to convince her to call my dad 'Big Al' the first time she met him but she said Mr. Noblet, now I think she only calls him Big Al. Turns out Katie fits right in with my whole family. I knew from early on that Katie was going to be the woman that I would ask to marry me. Katie's ability to show compassion for those around her and her ability to care for everyone in her life is something I had never witnessed and is something I admire deeply about her. I try to emulate her love for others towards her everyday and she has pushed me to be a better man in all aspects of my life. So when Katie says, 'I definitely took away the best prize'; I say, hold my beer.